Thomas Baird - Education Consultant
Tom Baird is a professional science educator with 35 years of experience. Mr. Baird holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and a Masters degree in Science Education. He has been a high school teacher, community college instructor (oceanography and microbiology), director of a science and environmental center, supervisor of science (K-12) in Pasco Co., FL, Director of Science (PreK-12) in Pinellas Co., FL, and the principal of a math/science/technology magnet high school in Pinellas Co., FL, prior to joining the Florida Department of Education as Project Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the Florida/NSF Statewide Systemic Initiative.
He has been published in the areas of marine science, energy education, equity initiatives, and science, technology and society issues, and testified before a congressional committee on national funding for science education. He has contributed to numerous guides and two textbooks, including Silver Burdett Biology, and has served on numerous boards for science centers and public aquaria. He was previously a director of the Florida State Science and Engineering Fair (1990) and president of the Florida Association of Science Supervisors. He is a consultant for several public and private universities on science education initiatives, and served as Coordinator of K-20 Programs for the Florida Space Research Institute at Kennedy Space Center. He most recently experienced weightlessness aboard Zero-G Corporation’s G-Force One along with national Teachers of the Year from several countries and U.S. States.
Dr. Ben Bova - Author
The author of more than 115 futuristic novels and nonfiction books, Dr. Ben Bova has been involved in science and high technology since the very beginnings of the space age. President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science Fiction Writers of America, Dr. Bova received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, for fueling mankind's imagination regarding the wonders of outer space. His 2006 novel TITAN received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year. His internet web site is www.benbova.com. Read his full bio here.
Michael Carroll - Artist & Editor
Michael has been an astronomical artist and science writer for over two decades. He has done work for NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His art has appeared in several hundred magazines throughout the world, including TIME, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, SKY & TELESCOPE, ASMIOV'S, SMITHSONIAN, ASTRONOMY, CIEL ET ESPACE, ANALOG, OMNI, and ODYSSEY. Mike is a Fellow and founding member of the International Association for the Astronomical Arts. One of his original paintings flew aboard the space station MIR. Mike and his wife, Caroline, have coauthored nearly twenty children's books. Mike organized and coauthored the science fiction anthology Eat My Martian Dust, and is currently working on Alien Volcanoes (John Hopkins University Press) and several other titles for both adults and children.
Jim Denney - Author
Jim is a fulltime writer with over 70 published books to his credit. His books include Quit Your Day Job! How to Sleep Late, Do What You Enjoy, and Make a Ton of Money As a Writer (Quill Driver, 2003; a Writer's Digest Book Club Selection) and the four book Timebenders science fiction series for young readers (Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002): Battle Before Time, Doorway to Doom, Invasion of the Time Troopers, and Lost in Cydonia. Jim has also collaborated with celebrity authors on numerous books including Super Bowl champion Reggie White (In the Trenches: The Autobiography), Super Bowl champion quarterback Bob Griese (Undefeated), Supermodel Kim Alexis (A Model for a Better Future), Star Trek actress Grace Lee Whitney (The Longest Trek), and Orlando Magic co-founder and vice president Pat Williams (Go For the Magic, The Magic of Teamwork, The Paradox of Power, Coaching Your Kids to Be Leaders, and The Warrior Within). Jim also contributed two space-oriented SF stories ("Tin Man" and "Shipwreck Planet") to the young readers SF collection Eat My Martian Dust. He is a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
"I discovered science fiction and space travel when I was five years old," Jim Denney says. "That's when I became hooked on a 1950s TV space opera called Space Patrol. By the time I was nine or ten, I was reading all the adult SF I could get my hands on. The books I loved most in those days are still my favorites today—especially Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. Robotic space exploration has only increased my fascination with Destination Mars. When I was a boy, watching the rapid advances of the NASA space program, I had no doubt I'd get to walk the sands of Mars myself someday. In the intervening years, NASA lost its way, but I've never lost my love for Mars. Today, I don't expect to ever physically reach Mars, but I do intend to go there in spirit. And that's why I'm looking forward to involvement with 4Frontiers. I'm a storyteller, not a scientist, though I consider myself a scientifically literate layman. I'm looking forward to blending my abilities and imagination with the considerable knowledge and talent base at 4Frontiers. My thanks to Marianne Dyson and Brian Enke for encouraging me to come aboard."
Marianne Dyson - Author
Inspired by the Apollo program and science fiction, Marianne Dyson earned a degree in physics and became one of NASA’s first ten women flight controllers. Dyson left NASA to raise her children, and now shares her passion for space through writing and speaking. She won the 2000 Golden Kite Award for Space Station Science (Scholastic, Windward) and the 2004 American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award for Home on the Moon (National Geographic). A member of SFWA and SCBWI, Dyson's articles, stories, poems, and activities have appeared in numerous publications including Analog Science Fiction and Odyssey magazines; and Best of Girls to the Rescue (Meadowbrook) and Eat My Martian Dust (Baker) anthologies. Dyson has appeared on C-SPAN2 and Reading is Fundamental, and was a science advisor for Scholastic’s Space University series for which she wrote Stars and Galaxies in 2004. She designs and edits the annual program book and serves as webmaster for the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation (http://www.rnasa.org/) and is a science consultant for Enslow Publishing. Her next book is a historical reference, Space and Astronomy: Decade by Decade, that will be published by Facts on File in 2007. Dyson serves on the National Space Society's policy committee and leads the "Reading Space" section of their website. Hoping to keep in shape for future space travel, Dyson earned a black belt in Kuk Sool, and continues training in Houston. For more information, visit http://www.mariannedyson.com/.
Brian Enke - Author
Brian is a Research Analyst in the Department of Space Studies at the Southwest Research Institute. Brian holds a M.S. degree in Computer Science from Northwestern University, specializing in software algorithms and Artificial Intelligence. He is also the published author of Shadows of Medusa, a mystery/thriller novel about near-future Mars exploration. Brian has given conference presentations on Mars science and economics, public outreach, and low-budget Mars settlement strategies. He is also a mentor for the Nederland High School robotics team in Nederland, Colorado.
Tom Hill - Author
An aerospace engineer by education, Tom Hill's experience covers the spectrum of military and civil space efforts. During active duty and reserve service in the Air Force, he's worked in satellite control centers, at space and missile warning sites, within launch control bunkers leading final efforts for a satellite launch, and supporting headquarters efforts to procure the latest weather satellites. His assignments included locations in Colorado, Turkey, California, and Washington DC. In the civilian world, Tom works as a contractor on America's geostationary weather satellites, part of the team taking the craft through design, launch and operations preparation, and on-orbit testing. He's also been busy within the space activism community, leading multiple projects for The Mars Society, and writing two books. Tom lives in suburban Washington with his wife and two children.
William N. Hulsey III, Esq. - Intellectual Property Counsel
William has twenty years of experience and achievements in protecting and licensing clients' intellectual property through U.S. and international patents, trademarks, copyrights, licensing, enforcement. He has drafted and prosecuted more than 600 patent applications in the following areas: nanoscience and nanotechnologies; software and computer technologies; wireless and telecommunications technologies and systems; aerospace and automotive technologies; lasers, photonics, optics, and imaging technologies; energy technologies and power systems; and semiconductor devices, integrated circuits and fabrication equipment technologies.
Bebe Kelly-Serrato - Research Consultant
BeBe holds a BS is Geological Sciences and a minor in Geophysics she's recently accepted a contract with GB Tech working for Boeing in Safety Engineering for the space station. She was hired for her experience and background for the International Space Station. In her career she's worked within the NASA community in the Engineering Directorate for Command and Data Handling, Fight Crew and Thermal Systems, Mission Science for Payloads, Crew Environmental / Health Systems, and On Orbit Information Systems; all as a systems engineering manager. Actively involved in the private sector for 20 years of IT infrastructure engineering and security and disaster recovery planning, she's planned and implemented systems networked from the wire up to the desktop. BeBe has created relationships with scientists, engineers, and people from all walks of life including the arts world in her line of work. She's utilized these connections in creative and diplomatic ways to help create wonderful business connections. BeBe strives to help create a robust space program through connections, a day at a time taking humans to other worlds including Mars. BeBe currently serves as the President of the Mars Society of Houston, Space Technical Operations Chair for the AIAA in Houston, runs her own vocal studio working with no more than 5 students a week, and building her own Aerospace company. She works with 4Frontiers Corporation to build relationships towards Mars exploration.
Bobbi McCutcheon - Author
Bobbi is a published fiction and non-fiction author and works as a writer, designer, and freelance graphic artist. She is the coauthor of The Facts on File Marine Science Handbook; Facts On File Pioneers in Sciencee, Space and Astronomy, the People Behind the Science; and the science fiction adventure Father mars, Mother Earth. She has lived in Alaska for many years as a wife to her coauthor, Scott, and is a mother to three sons.
Melissa Palaia - Education Package Developer
Melissa graduated from Rowan University with a Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and Psychology and a Certificate of Graduate Study in Early Childhood Education. For the last four years, Melissa has served as coordinator of the Elementary Extended Day Program for the YMCA. In the summers, she has been Assistant Director of the Summer Camp Program. Prior to this, she was a coordinator of a mentoring program which aided high school students in running an afterschool Ecology Club and a Summer Science Camp. Melissa also has classroom experience and has served as an administrative assistant within an Early Childhood Education Center. Since Melissa was a small child, she has loved books and the endless information they provide to the reader. Her many years of experience and her love for teaching and learning makes Melissa the perfect choice for our company's Education Package Developer.
Rebecca Rowe - Author
Rebecca is a science fiction author and freelance writer living and working in Colorado. Her debut science fiction novel, Forbidden Cargo, has just been published in the United States and Canada. It has received critical acclaim from newspapers such as The Washington Post. Rowe also writes science poetry and short stories, inspired by her overseas travels and her more frequent armchair explorations at the keyboard. With a Master's in Mass Communications/Journalism from the University of Denver and a Master's in International Relations from the University of Southern California, her fiction reflects a hard social science dimension. She is a member of the Mars Society, the National Space Society and the Denver Woman's Press Club.
John Spencer - Space Tourism Expert & Space Architect
John Spencer is a space architect who has built a career that balances the design and development professions. He is a pioneer in what he calls "The Design Frontier."
In 1995 he founded the not-for-profit Space Tourism Society (STS) of which he is president. He is also the author with Karen L. Rugg of the book Space Tourism - Do You Want to Go published by Apogee books in 2004.
He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, Space News, Popular Science, Men's Journal, Los Angeles Times, and more than 50 other magazines and newspaper articles on Space Tourism. He has appeared on “The Today Show,” and on CNN, ABC, CBS News, and more than three dozen other television stations, including the Discovery Channel, PBS, Japanese NHK, and the Learning Channel.
Over the past 25 years he and his team have proven they can originate exciting design concepts and attract the investment, joint venture, and sponsorship of some of the world’s most prestigious corporations. Millions of dollars have been invested directly into his concepts and intellectual properties. He creates, designs, and develops his own orbital tourism, lunar, and Mars/future-themed immersive simulation and attraction projects, while also serving as a conceptual designer for a variety of clients, government agencies and institutes.
Jim Swope - Public Relations Counselor
Jim has provided services to a wide range of clients through Swope Public Relations in Clearwater, Florida, since 1990. For 12 years prior to that, he held communications management positions with for-profit companies, non-profit organizations, and with advertising and public relations agencies. He has placed stories for clients in media ranging from local newspapers to international wire services, and in such trade publications as Aviation Week & Space Technology, Aerospace Engineering and Design News, in consumer publications such as Popular Science, and on programs including CNN's “Health Week,” “Headline News” and “Science & Technology Week.”
Debi-Lee Wilkinson - Research Scientist
Debi-Lee holds an M.S. in Physics from Florida State University and a B.S. in Physics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her graduate work was in high energy particle physics. More recently, she has held a research post within the Space Physics Department of University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). There she performed extensive data analysis and worked under NASA and NSF supported grants and contracts, specifically with regard to the Geophysical Institute Magnetometer Array (GIMA) and Meridian Scanning Photometer (MSP) projects.
In 2003, Ms. Wilkinson was awarded a National Science Foundation grant for the Surveyor Telescope for Atmospheric Research (STAR) system, investigating nighttime ozone measurement, under her independent consulting company Cygnus Innovations. She served as the principle investigator for that award. She has also served in various project management and supervisory roles at UAF during her 15 year tenure. Debi is spearheading 4Frontiers' SBIR and other research grant efforts.
